KVR Audio

neshel · Post by **neshel** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:58 pm

Beyond what TV and movies show, which is pretty banal outside of incidental context, seems ambient is pretty unknown round here. No one seems to know the old greats, like Tim Clark, Michael Stearns, and most of all Steve Roach.

Some probly know of Clause Shultze et all, but pre-80s stuff I don't care for, and while it was seminal in it's way, (it was tonal and) it didn't explore space like those in the 80s. Roach is still exploring.*

So it is just media trap that's made this circumstance?

* Note that I do not care for even Roach's beat-based music.....

fluffy_little_something · Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:24 am

I am not so sure I understand what your point is

You are not happy with the modern meaning of ambient music?

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:38 am

neshel wrote: Some probly know of Clause Shultze et all

His name is Klaus Schulze actually...

fluffy_little_something · Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:39 am

Claus is also my favorite German musician, Claus Ogerman that is

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:44 am

Btw, concerning Steve Roach, IMO something i read about him pretty much characterizes his music. "If you heard one of Steve Roach's tracks, you know them all.". It's really pretty much always the same. Yes, he does some nice textures, but the kind of repetition and randomness to his tracks makes them totally boring to me. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree, but IMO, there's much more talented guys out there. Same with Klaus Schulze. Lots of his stuff is pretty meh. Even the stuff he did with Pete Namlook, whose music i like, at least partly, is very boring.

Doug1978 · Post by **Doug1978** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:10 am

''No one seems to know the old greats, like Tim Clark, Michael Stearns, and most of all Steve Roach'' ??

I see fish...

(and dead people)

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:17 am

I have to admit that I find a lot of ambient music pretty boring. A droning ambience that goes on for ten minutes with only the occasional gradual timbral variation over the course of a minute. I guess this is the Brian Eno philosophy of background music which creates a mood. Personally, I think there is a lot of room to explore more structured pieces with recurring motifs, even without a rhythmic element. I'm sure there are plenty of artists who have done that sort of thing, but if anyone can point me to some specific examples, I'd love to hear them.

scintillator · Post by **scintillator** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:50 am

Coil, Nurse with Wound - some of their work is THE TOP!!!

GaryG · Post by **GaryG** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:12 am

deastman wrote:I guess this is the Brian Eno philosophy of background music which creates a mood.

His definition actually made the point that ambient music should have many levels so you can listen to it as attentively as you choose. You should also be able to ignore it if you want to (no prominent sounds etc).

I agree though that a lot of it can be interchangable but that's true of any genre; I've seen blues bands where I'd swear I'd heard the same song, same changes a dozen times or more.

2ZrgE · Post by **2ZrgE** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:26 am

deastman wrote:I have to admit that I find a lot of ambient music pretty boring. A droning ambience that goes on for ten minutes with only the occasional gradual timbral variation over the course of a minute.

Depends on the listening situation - it's not actually music you listen to on laptop speakers while browsing the latest KVR updates. I guess nowadays not many people have the time and patience to sit down, put goods cans on and listen to half-hour drone-pads without constant checking for Facebook/Twitter/whatever status updates. Still there's a small market for that kind of music it seems.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:01 am

neshel wrote:So it is just media trap that's made this circumstance?

No, there is no circumstance. There are a lot of people here who know 'ambient' here, they just happen to have a different viewpoint from you, and different tastes. That's all.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 12:29 pm

deastman wrote:I have to admit that I find a lot of ambient music pretty boring. A droning ambience that goes on for ten minutes with only the occasional gradual timbral variation over the course of a minute. I guess this is the Brian Eno philosophy of background music which creates a mood. Personally, I think there is a lot of room to explore more structured pieces with recurring motifs, even without a rhythmic element. I'm sure there are plenty of artists who have done that sort of thing, but if anyone can point me to some specific examples, I'd love to hear them.

That's what i mean. Roach's music e.g. is so boring to me, because it's just that. One big random drone, which keeps going on for minutes, maybe hours. But if you listen to other artists, for example i'm a big fan of Jonn Serrie, you see that there's a lot of arrangement and track writing which went into his tracks, and they evolve less randomly and more planned, and also more interesting to listen for me. And all i heard from Klaus Schulze, to stick with the examples mentioned in the first post, is Berlin School tracks which i consider as pretty uninspired music, but that's just a personal thing, or really simple, dull, ordinary sounds like in his cooperation with Pete Namlook. Especially some of the Dark side of the Moog albums are pretty weak IMO. Hence i wouldn't really mention the artists in the OP to prove that few know what "ambient" means.

do_androids_dream · Post by **do_androids_dream** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:12 pm

neshel wrote:Beyond what TV and movies show, which is pretty banal outside of incidental context, seems ambient is pretty unknown round here. No one seems to know the old greats, like Tim Clark, Michael Stearns, and most of all Steve Roach.

Some probly know of Clause Shultze et all, but pre-80s stuff I don't care for, and while it was seminal in it's way, (it was tonal and) it didn't explore space like those in the 80s. Roach is still exploring.*

So it is just media trap that's made this circumstance?

* Note that I do not care for even Roach's beat-based music.....

Just because it's not discussed much doesn't mean people don't know it. There's a few around here who post their own ambient music in the cafe from time to time which generates some discussion.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:16 pm

neshel wrote:Some probly know of Clause Shultze et all, but pre-80s stuff I don't care for, and while it was seminal in it's way, (it was tonal and) it didn't explore space like those in the 80s. Roach is still exploring.

Clause, you mean Santa Clause or Klaus Schulze ?

I don't think of him as ambient, more Berlin School.

Steve Roach is a great though, but maybe releasing too much stuff sounding the same?

Aleatoriac · Post by **Aleatoriac** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 2:03 pm

I don't know if it was technically ambient, but when I was a kid my parents bought me a "boombox" (early 1980s). From a garage sale, but I didn't care, it was the most awesome thing. I found this mysterious pair of bands labeled "SW" and began to listen. I loved the noise of shortwave radio, so I would record it. A few years later I had a job, and bought a "dual deck" cassette recorder with "hi-speed dubbing." I made my first noise music with this, playing those shortwave recordings, copying them, popping off the cassette casings on the tape deck so I could manually manipulate the playback speeds of the cassettes with my finger, and... instant tape delay. But it wasn't enough, I wanted more...

And now look I can't stop buying synths and plugins. Bastards.

Seems few know what 'ambient' means......